USJ 6 RT members all geared up for their night patrol.
GETTING everyone in the neighbourhood together is never an easy task. Often, residents forget each other’s phone numbers in times of emergency while some are often caught up with work, leaving them very little time to get to know the community around them.
“Social media applications such as Whatsapp, Telegram and Facebook have helped us a lot in forging a closer relationship,” said USJ 6 RT deputy chairman Juan Lee.
Lee said USJ 6 is a mixed community and the housing area has evolved over the years and is now made up of 2,140 landed properties, Subang Perdana Flats, a teacher’s quarters, a high-end condominium, a primary school, two petrol stations, two LRT stations and a BRT station that connects them directly to Sunway.
It was quite a challenge for his team to form the RT group initially, but it eventually became a reality, thanks to the help of Major Ismail Feisol (Rtd).
Ismail, who is currently the committee chairman, guided them with his expertise and the team’s first task and main focus was to combat crime, mainly break-ins in their neighbourhood.
“We managed to bring down the crime rate by 90% with our team being the eyes and ears of the USJ 8 police who assisted us,” he said.
Patrolling is conducted daily by a team that goes around the neighbourhood on cars and bikes.
There are 22 members in the committee representing all the areas needed.
They also built a cabin that is used for their meetings.
According to Lee, the “RT” definition comes from the framework of community services, hence bringing unity and bonding closer relationship with neighbours was always important.
Lee said there were lots of activities in the neighbourhood and his team had organised different types of campaigns and classes to encourage residents to participate and get to know one another.
“We organise cooking classes, tree planting, health checks, safety awareness and fire prevention campaigns,” he said, adding that there were also basketball sessions for the younger residents and the occasional meet-ups for the elders.
With all the right tools in place, Lee hopes the residents would also play their part in assisting one another to keep USJ 6 free from crime.
